Classifications

• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F03—MACHINES OR ENGINES FOR LIQUIDS; WIND, SPRING, OR WEIGHT MOTORS; PRODUCING MECHANICAL POWER OR A REACTIVE PROPULSIVE THRUST, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • F03D—WIND MOTORS
  • F03D13/00—Assembly, mounting or commissioning of wind motors; Arrangements specially adapted for transporting wind motor components
  • F03D13/20—Arrangements for mounting or supporting wind motors; Masts or towers for wind motors
• • A—HUMAN NECESSITIES
  • A01—AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; ANIMAL HUSBANDRY; HUNTING; TRAPPING; FISHING
  • A01M—CATCHING, TRAPPING OR SCARING OF ANIMALS; APPARATUS FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF NOXIOUS ANIMALS OR NOXIOUS PLANTS
  • A01M29/00—Scaring or repelling devices, e.g. bird-scaring apparatus
  • A01M29/30—Scaring or repelling devices, e.g. bird-scaring apparatus preventing or obstructing access or passage, e.g. by means of barriers, spikes, cords, obstacles or sprinkled water
  • A01M29/32—Scaring or repelling devices, e.g. bird-scaring apparatus preventing or obstructing access or passage, e.g. by means of barriers, spikes, cords, obstacles or sprinkled water specially adapted for birds, e.g. spikes
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F03—MACHINES OR ENGINES FOR LIQUIDS; WIND, SPRING, OR WEIGHT MOTORS; PRODUCING MECHANICAL POWER OR A REACTIVE PROPULSIVE THRUST, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • F03D—WIND MOTORS
  • F03D80/00—Details, components or accessories not provided for in groups F03D1/00 - F03D17/00
  • F03D80/60—Cooling or heating of wind motors
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F05—INDEXING SCHEMES RELATING TO ENGINES OR PUMPS IN VARIOUS SUBCLASSES OF CLASSES F01-F04
  • F05B—INDEXING SCHEME RELATING TO WIND, SPRING, WEIGHT, INERTIA OR LIKE MOTORS, TO MACHINES OR ENGINES FOR LIQUIDS COVERED BY SUBCLASSES F03B, F03D AND F03G
  • F05B2260/00—Function
  • F05B2260/20—Heat transfer, e.g. cooling
  • F05B2260/201—Heat transfer, e.g. cooling by impingement of a fluid
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F05—INDEXING SCHEMES RELATING TO ENGINES OR PUMPS IN VARIOUS SUBCLASSES OF CLASSES F01-F04
  • F05B—INDEXING SCHEME RELATING TO WIND, SPRING, WEIGHT, INERTIA OR LIKE MOTORS, TO MACHINES OR ENGINES FOR LIQUIDS COVERED BY SUBCLASSES F03B, F03D AND F03G
  • F05B2260/00—Function
  • F05B2260/60—Fluid transfer
  • F05B2260/64—Aeration, ventilation, dehumidification or moisture removal of closed spaces
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F05—INDEXING SCHEMES RELATING TO ENGINES OR PUMPS IN VARIOUS SUBCLASSES OF CLASSES F01-F04
  • F05B—INDEXING SCHEME RELATING TO WIND, SPRING, WEIGHT, INERTIA OR LIKE MOTORS, TO MACHINES OR ENGINES FOR LIQUIDS COVERED BY SUBCLASSES F03B, F03D AND F03G
  • F05B2280/00—Materials; Properties thereof
  • F05B2280/10—Inorganic materials, e.g. metals
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
  • Y02E—REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGY GENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION
  • Y02E10/00—Energy generation through renewable energy sources
  • Y02E10/70—Wind energy
  • Y02E10/72—Wind turbines with rotation axis in wind direction
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
  • Y02E—REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGY GENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION
  • Y02E10/00—Energy generation through renewable energy sources
  • Y02E10/70—Wind energy
  • Y02E10/728—Onshore wind turbines

Definitions

• the present invention in a first aspect relates to a cooling panel assembly for a wind turbine tower, which cooling panel assembly is arranged to be mounted on such a tower and being dimensionally adapted to extend a short section of the tower circumferential when mounted thereto, and which cooling panel assembly includes at least one cooling panel.
• the invention in a second aspect, relates to a wind turbine tower.
• Cooling may be effected by a cooling circuit having the equipment as the hot spot of the circuit and a passive cooling panel as the cold spot.
• Such cooling panels may be arranged on the tower somewhere between the nacelle and the base platform.
• One or more cooling panels together with the necessary related components such as the mounting brackets, pipes, hoses etc. form a cooling panel assembly.
• Service equipment outside a high wind turbine tower is commonly performed by service technicians climbing the outside of the tower with the aid of some kind of ascending devices.
• the cooling panel assemblies may impose a safety threat potentially causing injury to a service technician if descending at high velocity and hitting the cooling panel assembly.
• WO2013185767 discloses a wind tower turbine of a kind for which the present invention is applicable.
• the disclosure addresses the problem of shielding off cooling panels from above. Shielding is performed by a circumferential flange around the tower. For large tower this represents a waste of material and construction work, since the shielding is needed only above the cooling panels. The large part of the flange thus is not only superfluous; it also creates a restriction for vertical transports between the cooling panels. Furthermore, the cooling panels are mounted onto the flange, implying that they have to be mounted in situ.
• the object of the present invention is to eliminate or at least reduce the above described general problems, in particular to solve the personnel safety problem, but also to avoid the drawbacks entailing accumulation of guano on the cooling panels. More specifically the object is to achieve this while overcoming the drawbacks related to the prior art.
• a cooling panel assembly of the kind specified in the preamble of claim 1 includes the specific features specified in the characterizing portion of the claim.
• the cooling panel assembly includes deflector means mounted at the top of the cooling panel such that it shields it from above, which deflector means has substantially the same circumferential extension or more as the other parts of the cooling panel assembly.
• deflector panels By providing such deflector panels at the top of the cooling panel assembly, a person being lowered towards the cooling panel assembly is prevented from hitting against the latter. The person will instead hit against the deflector panel which provides a less dangerous collision since the deflector panels do not have sharp and rigid edges and corners as the cooling panels. This decreases the risk for injury at descending. Furthermore, the deflector panels will limit the possibilities for seabirds - and in case of a plant located on land, although the problem then is less severe, birds in general - to reach the cooling panels for roosting, whereby the problem of decreasing the effectiveness of the cooling panels due to guano is reduced.
• the deflector means By forming the deflector means as a part of the cooling panel assembly having about the same circumferential dimension the material and mounting efforts for the deflector means will be low. Particularly advantageous is that the deflector means may be mounted to the cooling panels in the factory assembly, which saves a lot of costs in comparison with mounting them in situ. A further advantage is that the parts of the circumferential of the tower, where there are no cooling panel becomes completely free, which facilitates ascend and descend in these regions, According to a preferred embodiment, the deflector means is inclined out from the tower in the downward direction.
• the inclination results in a softer collision in case a service technician should hit against the deflector panel. This further reduces the risk for injury.
• the deflector panel is inclined it will also be less inviting to roost on for a seabird.
• the inclination of the deflector means is in the range of 15° to 45° with respect to the horizontal.
• the cooling panel assembly includes a pair of substantially vertical cooling panels deviating from each other outwardly from the tower such that a V-shape is established, and wherein the deflector means includes two deflector panels shielding a respective one of the cooling panels.
• the pair of cooling panels meet each other close to, or at, the tower.
• Such an arrangement of the cooling panels is advantageous with respect to the cooling efficiency, since it offers a geometrically optimal position of these to be exposed to the cooling wind at various directions.
• Such kind of cooling panel assembly it will be constructional simple to separate the deflection panel means into an individual deflector panel for the respective cooling panel.
• the two deflector panels meet each other without any clearance between them.
• the deflector panel means is made of a thin plate material, such as a thin plate metal sufficient thin to result in a substantial deflection of the panel means when hit by a person from above.
• the deflector means is made of one or more metal plates.
• metal plates is advantageous with respect to combine high deflection with sufficient strength. They can thus be quite thin and thereby lead to a low weight. Metal is also advantageous with regards to sustainability in the hush weather condition often prevailing.
• surfaces of the cooling panel assembly which are located below the deflector means (6) and are mainly horizontal and face upwards are provided with bird obstacles.
• mainly horizontal is meant that the surface forms an angle less than 45° with the horizontal.
• the obstacles may be mounted on each spot of each horizontal surface to effectively reduce the roosting possibility to zero. This also includes surfaces that may be oblique, but having a sufficient horizontal component to be attractive for roosting. However, the obstacles may be mounted only on those parts of the horizontal surfaces that may be particularly attractive for the seabirds to rest on. When mounting such obstacles, the importance of the deflector means for protecting against injury is accentuated since these obstacles otherwise would increase the danger if landing on a cooling panel assembly. It is to be understood that such obstacles may be mounted also on a cooling panel assembly without deflector means.
• At least some of the bird obstacles are spikes.
• the bird obstacles may have any appropriate shape, it is found to be advantageous to shape them as spikes, i.e. a thin pin element. It is a very simple and thereby cheap element that is easy to mount. It is also very effective since the spike as such provides no spot to rest on.
• the spikes preferably are vertical, but may alternatively be somewhat inclined as long as the inclination is not to such an extent that it provides possibility for a bird to rest thereon.
• the spikes may advantageously be arranged pairwise in a V-shaped configuration with an inclination of 30° to 60° in relation to the surface on which they are attached.
• a plurality of such pairs may be mounted along a strip.
• the strip may be bolted to the surface of the part on which the spikes are mounted.
• a strip may be 50 cm long and have 20 pairs of spikes mounted thereto.
• the bird obstacles have a height in the range of 10 to 100 cm.
• the obstacles are mounted sufficiently close to each other to prevent the possibility for a bird to roost on said surface.
• Sparsely mounted obstacles may reduce the attraction for birds to roost on the surface, but perhaps not fully prevent them.
• the object of the invention is more completely met. How close to each other the spikes are to be mounted is partly dependent on how long they are. The longer the spikes are, the sparser they can be mounted and still be preventive.
• the distance between two neighbouring obstacles is in the range of 1 to 50 cm, such as 1 to 30 cm.
• the distance must be sufficient small in order to limit the space that can be used by the bird. On the other hand it is of interest not to mount an excess number of obstacles.
• the specified range represents an adequate balance in this respect.
• the distance is within 2 to 20 cm, such as 2 to 10 cm.
• a wind turbine tower of the kind specified in the preamble if claim 13 includes the specific features specified in the characterizing portion thereof.
• the tower further is provided with at least one cooling panel according to the present invention, in particular to any of the preferred embodiments thereof.
• the tower is provided with at least three such cooling panel assemblies which are distributed equidistantly around the tower.
• the cooling panel assembly is dimensionally adapted to extend a section of the tower circumferential of less than half of the tower circumferential; in preferred embodiments, it extends a section of less than 60° of the tower circumferential.
• Directions and angles specified in the present application relates to the cooling panel assembly in the position when mounted on the tower.
• Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a wind turbine tower according to the present invention.
• Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a bottom portion of a wind turbine tower and illustrates a cooling panel assembly according to a first example of the present invention.
• Fig. 3 is a schematic side view of a cooling panel assembly according to fig. 2.
• Fig. 4 is a schematic view from the left of the cooling panel assembly of fig. 3.
• Fig. 5 is a schematic view from above of the cooling panel assembly of fig. 3
• Figs. 6 and 7 are views corresponding to those of figs. 4 and 5 but showing a second example of the invented cooling panel assembly.
• Fig. 8 is a perspective view of parts of a cooling panel assembly according to a further example of the invention.
• Fig. 9 is a perspective view of a detail according to a still further example of the invention.
• Fig. 1 shows a wind turbine 101 with a rotor 102 presenting a number of blades 103 and a hub 104 to which the blades are mounted.
• the wind turbine comprises a nacelle 105 provided at the top of a tower 1 .
• the tower is supported by a foundation 109 arranged in the ground or on a sea platform.
• the nacelle 105 houses a generator 106 to which the rotor is connected via a gearbox 107.
• the gearbox 107 and the generator 106 heat during operation, and for this a cooling system including a heat exchanger 108 on the nacelle exterior is provided.
• the cooling circuit comprises a number of heat exchangers mounted to the tower. Each heat exchanger is constituted by a cooling panel assembly 2 and includes one or more cooling panels and a deflector panel means 6.
• Fig. 2 illustrates an example of a cooling panel assembly 2 according to the present invention.
• the cooling panel assembly 2 includes two separate cooling panels 2a, 2b.
• Each cooling panel is formed by a rectangular frame 5 with both sides of the rectangle being considerably larger than the thickness of the panel, i.e. the dimension perpendicular to the rectangle.
• the shape may be other than rectangular.
• Within the frame 5 there is a packet of pipes for the heat exchanger circuit.
• Each cooling panel 2a, 2b is vertically directed in the sense that its frame is parallel to a vertical plane.
• the two cooling panels 2a, 2b are positioned in a V- shape relative to each other, where they meet each other at a mounting structure 7 by which they are mounted to the tower 1 .
• the angle between the cooling panels 2a, 2b is in the figure about 90°, but may be much larger or smaller than that.
• a bracket 4 supports the outer parts of the cooling panels 2a, 2b.
• a deflector panel means 6 Attached to the upper end of the cooling panels 2a, 2b is a deflector panel means 6, consisting of two deflector panels 6a, 6b connected to a respective one of the cooling panels 2a, 2b.
• the deflector panels 6a, 6b extend obliquely from the respective cooling panel 2a, 2b upwardly towards the tower 1 , to which they are attached
• the cooling panel assembly 2 is shown from a side view tangentially to the tower.
• the assembly is shown in a side view from the outside in the radial direction of the tower.
• the edges of the deflection panels 6a, 6b that face each other are shaped and located so that they meet each other in order to avoid any clearance between them.
• the deflection panels 6a, 6b of the cooling panel assembly 2 are seen from above.
• FIG. 6 and 7 are views corresponding to those of figs 4 and 5.
• this example there is a small clearance C between the deflector panels 6a, 6b.
• the deflector panels 6a, 6b are made of thin metal plates. Each panel may be constituted by a single plate or by a plurality of plates attached together. Each deflector panel 6a, 6b may be planar or curved.
• the angle between a deflector panel and the horizontal is preferably in the range of 15° and 45°, i. e. somewhat smaller than in the example illustrated in fig. 3. In case of a non-planar plate the angle is calculated related to a straight line from the upper end to the lower end of the deflector panel.
• Fig. 8 illustrates a further example of the invention.
• the deflector panels are left out for the sake of better visibility.
• the spikes are about 10 cm high and the distance between them is about 25 cm.
• Similar spikes may be mounted on every surface of the cooling panels 2a, 2b and the mounting structure 7 that is facing upwards.
• Fig. 9 illustrates an alternative example for the arrangement of spikes.
• the spikes 8a, 8b are mounted pairwise in a V-shaped relation. They are attached along a strip 10, which is to be bolted to the surface in question.
• every second pair of spikes have a smaller angle in the V-shape than the other pairs.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Life Sciences & Earth Sciences (AREA)
• Sustainable Development (AREA)
• Sustainable Energy (AREA)
• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Combustion & Propulsion (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Birds (AREA)
• Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
• Thermal Sciences (AREA)
• Insects & Arthropods (AREA)
• Pest Control & Pesticides (AREA)
• Wood Science & Technology (AREA)
• Zoology (AREA)
• Environmental Sciences (AREA)
• Wind Motors (AREA)
• Cooling Or The Like Of Electrical Apparatus (AREA)

Priority Applications (5)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

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• 2016
  • 2016-07-11 CN CN201680041766.1A patent/CN108026898B/zh active Active
  • 2016-07-11 WO PCT/DK2016/050247 patent/WO2017008817A1/en active Application Filing
  • 2016-07-11 US US15/744,261 patent/US10264782B2/en not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2016-07-11 JP JP2018502117A patent/JP6812406B2/ja active Active
  • 2016-07-11 KR KR1020187004704A patent/KR102535456B1/ko active IP Right Grant
  • 2016-07-11 EP EP16739019.4A patent/EP3322895B1/de active Active

Patent Citations (6)

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